SENECA FALLS, N.Y. — Is this where George Bailey lived his wonderful life?

Folks in the quaint upstate New York town think so.

More precisely, they say the make-believe hometown of Bedford Falls in
It’s a Wonderful Life — including the main street and the steel-truss bridge — was heavily
inspired by Seneca Falls.

Frank Capra, the director, never confirmed such a connection, but locals nonetheless celebrate
the beloved movie every December — complete with actors dressed as Clarence the angel and mean old
Mr. Potter in a parade down a main street gussied up to look like Bedford Falls.

“Capra always said Bedford Falls represented little slices of small towns that he had visited
all across America,” said Francis Caraccilo, a trustee for the Seneca Falls It’s a Wonderful Life
Museum.

“We’re not in a position to dispute that; we just think we’re a bigger slice.”

Capra’s 1946 film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a frustrated small-town banker who
realizes his life’s value after Clarence shows him what would have become of Bedford Falls if
George had not been born.

The homey town falls into the clutches of the greedy slumlord Potter, and his Pottersville
becomes a city of sin, brimming with sleazy nightclubs, burlesque halls, pawnshops and neon
lights.

If Bedford Falls (the nice one, not the naughty one) really was modeled after Seneca Falls,
Capra never let on before his death in 1991.

Still, many Seneca Falls residents say the town of 9,000 has a strong circumstantial case.

Seneca Falls has a nice broad main street a la the one in Bedford Falls and a bridge with a
plaque dedicated to a man who jumped from the span to save a suicidal woman in 1917 — an act echoed
in the film.

Karolyn Grimes, who plays daughter Zuzu in the movie and regularly attends the festival, said
Seneca Falls’ similarities are so striking that she blurted out “It’s Bedford Falls!” during her
first visit.

The film is also loaded with references to nearby upstate cities. The bank examiner wants to get
back to his family in Elmira for Christmas. George’s wealthy friend, Sam Wainwright, talks of
building a factory outside Rochester, and his brother is offered a job in Buffalo. Bedford Falls
also has a Genesee Street. The word
genesee is from the Iroquois and is closely associated with the Finger Lakes region that
includes the town.

Even without slam-dunk proof that Capra set foot in Seneca Falls, there is the haircut
story.

A barber, Tommy Bellissima, claimed he cut Capra’s hair in 1945. Bellissima, who died in 2011,
didn’t initially know that the customer with whom he chatted was famous, but the surname Capra
stuck in his head because it means “goat” in Italian. The story is that Capra had been on his way
to visit an aunt nearby.

Maybe fitting for a Christmas story, the contention that Seneca Falls is the real Bedford Falls
comes down to belief.

“There just is no evidence to support it, but God bless them,” said Jeanine Basinger, curator of
the Frank Capra Archive at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and author of
The “It’s a Wonderful Life” Book.

Basinger said Capra was a meticulous record keeper, yet she has never come across the link in
Capra’s records, his diary entries or script notes — or in the many conversations she had with
Capra through the years.

The partisans of Seneca Falls can seemingly live with that.

“We’re OK not having proof,” Caraccilo said. “In fact, maybe having a little mystery behind it
makes it even better — keeps the magic going.”